The Best Blueberry Muffins You’ll Ever Eat

This recipe will seriously make you wanna smack yo mama. (Sorry, Mama.) It’s just that good. The raw batter alone (yes, I’m a batter licker; consume raw or undercooked eggs at your own risk) was nearly enough to put me over the edge. I think it’s the buttermilk.

Until I found this recipe, I thought I had a pretty good “go to” blueberry muffin recipe– it has since been dethroned. This recipe proves that you can’t rush perfection. Sometimes you have to go slow and use more than one bowl. (Maybe even tow or three!) The extra time and effort, those few extra steps, really DO make all the difference.

I’ll warn you in advance, this is an ingredient heavy recipe. Or in other words, it’s not just flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and blueberries. So make sure you have everything on hand (and make a quick trip to the grocery store if you don’t) before you begin. It also takes a little longer because there ARE extra steps, and because the ingredients need to be mixed in a certain order. You will need TWO CUPS, total, of blueberries, but a cup each is used in two different parts of the recipe.

Makes 12-16 “regular” sized muffins, or 6-8 “jumbo” muffins.

MUFFIN INGREDIENTS

1 cup fresh blueberries, picked over (Frozen is acceptable if that’s all you have. Thaw in cool water and pat dry.)

1 1/8 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon table salt

2 large eggs

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk*

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

“JELLY” INGREDIENTS

1 cup blueberries

1/2 teaspoon sugar

LEMON SUGAR

zest of one lemon (about 1 1/2 teaspoons)

1/3 cup sugar

*Buttermilk substitutions. Real buttermilk is always best, but in a pinch, you can use one of the substitutions below.

3/4 cup whole milk
or

3/4 cup yogurt + 1/4 cup milk
or

clabbered milk: add one tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup, then fill to 1 cup with milk heated to 70°. Stir together and let stand about 5 minutes, or until milk has thickened and a firm curd has formed.

PUTTIN’ IT ALL TOGETHER

1) Mix together sugar and lemon zest and set aside.

2) In a small sauce pan, heat 1 cup blueberries with 1 teaspoon sugar. As berries start to heat up, mash with a fork, or a potato masher– which I think works quite well. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, until thick and reduced to about a 1/3 – 1/4 cup. Set aside to cool.

3) Place oven rack at upper middle level and pre-heat oven to 425°. Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray or line with muffin cups, which you can also lightly spray to ensure they don’t stick.

4) In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

5) In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until homogeneous (or in other words, until the eggs and sugar are mixed together real good-ha!) For ease, combine melted butter and oil in the same measuring cup, then slowly whisk into the egg/sugar mixture. Go slow. The egge/sugar mixture is thick and the oil and butter is going to float on top if you go too fast. Next, continue to slowly whisk in the butter milk and vanilla.

6) In a small bowl, toss the remaining 1 cup of blueberries with about 1 tablespoon your dry ingredient mixture. (This is like glue for your berries and will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of your muffins.

7) With a spatula, fold wet ingredients, including blueberries, into the dry ingredients. Don’t over mix. Batter will be lumpy with some dry spots. Batter may also be slightly wetter than you expect; that’s OK.

8) Portion batter into muffin tin, filling to just below the top rim. Then take about a 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of “jelly” mixture and spoon on top of batter. If you have to double back and hit some of the muffins twice, be sure to use all of the “jelly”. With a skewer, draw a figure eight into the top of the muffin to spread the jelly around.

9) Sprinkle a teaspoon or so of lemon sugar on top of each muffin.

10) Bake for 17-19 minutes. Oddly enough, I found that the regular and large muffins baked in the same amount of time. Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

11) Remove pans from oven and let set for 5 minutes. Then remove muffins from pan and let cool for at least 5 minutes (if you can wait that long!) before eating.

12) Take a bite and smack yo mama(!), then hand her one of these omg amazing blueberry muffins by way of an apology.

Bon appetite!

ps… I’d also like to give a shout out to Brynne and Bruce at Blueberry Hill for the amazing bluleberries!